Ayahuasca - Ready to Die...

[nic_gabriel]

http://youtu.be/H8Ra7cVkUoE

Brian Rose & Nic Gabriel talk about their upcoming retreat with Ayahuasca, the controversial hallucinogen and "Plant Teacher." After spending 10 days on a rigorous diet of no sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, drugs, wheat, red meat, dairy, soy or spices, they discuss their anxiety and anticipation about the upcoming experience and how it will change their lives.

 

[Foreigner]

Ayahuasca... totally overrated yet trendy.

All of the ritualization is what creates the anxiety. I'd rather just be handed the drug, have a close friend to watch over me who has experience with psychedelics, and let me connect with the entheogen directly. No middle men, no people telling me how I "must" interact with this medicine. All of the dietary requirements and lifestyle changes by these ritual groups - who have no medical experience - would surely render some people deficient by the time they end up doing the ceremony. For others it would be a great diet. And the purging... all that purging, just to connect with the Divine. I can do that with 500ug of LSD, and not have to puke rivers of cosmic-whatever out of my gullet to feel infinite oneness. Needing to show up to a ceremony with a puke bucket and sit in a room with 10-20 other people who are also puking? Not my cup of tea.

Aside from avoiding the foods that interfere with MAOIs, there is no reason to force the same special diet on every person. Every constitution is unique. If I did that diet and THEN had a pukey ayahuasca experience, I would be incredibly spent. A lot of people I've met who have done ayahuasca ceremonies repeatedly show signs of lacking nutrition. But I guess people will do anything once they've drunk the koolaid.

Sorry if I'm coming across as judgmental. I just greatly dislike the pseudo-shamanic culture that has popped up around this drug, with all of the ceremonial hoopla around it that charges people hundreds or thousands of dollars to partake in these ceremonies. Just give me the mixture and I'll decide for myself.